”I don’t take this for granted”.
There’s a lot to be said for taking big swings. Despite the comfort of 30 or more years in showbusiness, Ryan Reynolds is on a journey of reinvention.
The Canadian-born actor, whose career leans heavily on the action-comedy genre, is taking on things he never dreamed were possible.
It could be that Deadpool, the 2016 superhero film that took several years to reach the screen and become a global smash, was the springboard to a creative freedom (as seen in sci-fi bender The Adam Project and satirical adventure Free Guy).
But if you ask Ryan, it simply comes down to sentimentality.
”As I’ve got older in this business, I appreciate and value getting to work with either people who I already love and I’m friends with or people I’ve always really hoped to work with or be around,” Ryan, 46, tells TV WEEK.
Ferrell and Reynolds are two peas in a pod!
(IMAGE: Getty)That much is true of his latest left turn, Spirited.
The all-singing, all-dancing reimagining of the Charles Dickens‘ tale A Christmas Carol tells the tale of Clint Briggs, a miserable man visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and “yet to come” in the hopes of changing his course.
A musical is outside Ryan’s comfort zone – ”It’s the most challenging project I’ve ever done,” he says – yet he signed on the dotted line knowing very little besides one thing: Will Ferrell would star.
”Will is a producer on Spirited and they approached me about this role,” Ryan says.
”I was pretty close to saying yes even before I read the script, because it’s been a lifelong dream to work with him. If I’d known 15 years ago that I’d be shooting a movie this intimately with Will, I would have pinched myself. I wouldn’t have believed it.”
As both a fan and friend, the Hollywood star treasured getting to watch the comedy icon up close, calling it ”being in the ultimate clinic”.
”I’ve been around showbiz a long time and worked with all manner of actors,” Ryan says.
”The thing I was most delightfully surprised by is that Will isn’t ‘on’ all the time. You can access the human being there and have a completely wonderful and, dare I say, serious conversation.
”[But] then you can also snap into doing bits where you lose half a day joking around. You’d be hard pressed to find somebody who hasn’t contributed more to the modern comedic lexicon than Will Ferrell. It was quite special.”
Ryan and Blake wowed at 2022 Met Gala.
(IMAGE: Getty)Of his own past, Ryan jokes that he could be haunted by ghosts of Christmas for any number of things – ”The crap a teenage boy gets up to in their bedroom would probably be enough to throw me in jail for life” – before declaring that his life isn’t interesting enough for such a visit to take place.
”I don’t think I have that sordid a past, although I am grateful the front half of my career was before camera phones,” he says with a laugh.
”Then again, I do work in show business… aren’t we all kind of moderately corrupt?”
Ryan’s past may be of a regular standard, but his present has captured the interest of the world. Since his marriage to Gossip Girl star and actress Blake Lively in 2012, the ”It” couple have flooded more tabloids and walked more red carpets than most.
But at home, Ryan and Blake, 35, who have three daughters – James, Betty and Inez – and a baby on the way, keep life as normal as it can be. And while their girls are yet to fully realise who their parents are to the world, there are certain perks to Dad’s job.
”I love doing movies they can see [such as Spirited] because they’ll never see something like Deadpool for a dozen or more years,” Ryan says.
”But these days, it’s more of a holistic experience for my whole family. If Blake’s shooting a movie, I’m not, so we all travel together to set and vice versa. We’re together the whole time.
”It’s pretty immersive for them. They get to be on the sets and see how it all comes together. It’s awesome for them to get exposed to that. I never take that for granted.”
The cast of Spirited at the New York premiere.
(IMAGE: Getty)As the youngest of four boys growing up, Christmas wasn’t about the tree or the trimmings. It was about connection, a belief he’s held onto.
As a parent, he now cherishes it more than ever.
”My Christmas presents were generally hand-me-downs; my brother’s jacket or his pants. It was anti-climactic, to be perfectly honest,” he says.
”But we were all together. Always. My family is pretty working-class. We didn’t go on vacations, but we stuck together. It’s something I’ve carried on with my own family.
”We all cook [every Christmas] and the kids enjoy it. With gifts, we try to keep it simple, and small. Blake is good at gifting something personal – old photos or things from my childhood I thought were lost. She keeps it interesting. It’s always more sentimental than expensive. I love the little things like that.”
With his personal and professional life in bloom, Ryan is extending his brand to the world of football at Wrexham FC, in Wales, which he co-owns with fellow actor Rob McElhenney.
With his personal and professional life in bloom, Ryan is extending his brand to the world of football at Wrexham FC, in Wales, which he co-owns with fellow actor Rob McElhenney.
In a scenario not dissimilar to the story of TV series Ted Lasso, in which an American outsider is hired to manage a struggling British soccer team, Ryan is fully aware his involvement is unorthodox. But with great enthusiasm and sentiment, the Hollywood star stepped up and swung big. Now, it’s paying dividends.
”This isn’t hyperbole, but this has been the great privilege of my life to be a part of this incredible project,” he says.
”It’s something I’m quite sure I’ll be a part of until the day I finally close my eyes to this weird, dumb show.”
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